I keep notebooks that are labeled by topics: Politics, Health, Education, Economy, Urban Development, Post War, Overseas Vietnamese and Climate/Environment.  I cut out stories every day from several English-speaking newspapers that I think are pertinent to these topics and staple them in.  

Today I came across an article with the headline: City dumps 80% of sewage into rivers.  The story goes on to talk about legal and illegal dumping of raw sewage into the city’s water supply.  Water pollution is no secret or surprise.  You can smell it almost every time you are near a river, depending on its flow.  But seeing that actual number was alarming to me.

So for this column I decided to steal fellow photographer Matt Eich’s column idea and simply show you my backyard.  I live in a large apartment complex on the Thi Nghe Canal, which is a tributary of the Saigon River.  When the winds blow just right, I can catch a scent of the sewage.  

You’d think that alone would be enough to keep people away but this is Vietnam and it is sweltering.  My local neighbors swim in the water every day after school.  The boys will gather on large concrete beams extending out into the water and take turns diving in.

Nearby boats load and unload fruits and vegetables to sell at markets.  In the distance, major throughways jammed with traffic cross over the water.  But the sound seems to dissipate by the time it reaches me.  The curve of the canal shelters me from the city’s distractions and for a moment I feel at peace.

When I photograph such universal things, I forget that there are cultural differences.  Boys swimming in a river or lake are the same everywhere in the world.  The expressions are the same.  The actions are the same.  Even the taunting is the same.  If I could put them all on mute, I would probably mistake it for my hometown back in the States.

However I did not grow up this way.  I lived on a dirt road in a neighborhood with few children to play with.  My older sisters had better things to do than to play games with me.  I had classmates who had cabins at the two lakes near my town but it was seldom I could actually go.  So in this sense, this local community is far richer than I have will ever be.

This is where I live, for better and for worse.  The laughter and the splashing offers just a bit of solace from that 80% figure.  You can only hope that Vietnam attempts to make some changes to how it treats the environment in the developing years to come.

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Kevin German is a photographer who lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.  His column, “The Motorbike Diaries” appears every other Wednesday. He is a founding member of LUCEO.